1: Intermolecular

2: Irradiation Loops

Iku Sakan starts off Japan Blues’ self-titled label with the two-track LP Prism In Us All.

“Sakan, an electronic musician and DJ from Osaka, has spent most of the last decade living in Berlin. Prior to that, he was active in the underground club scene of Kyoto & Osaka. A previous unit was Sakan & Senju (with Muneomi Senju of The Boredoms). Together, they produced a 15 copy handmade edition of their music on CDr. Iku personally handed a copy to Karlheinz Stockhausen, when he was visiting Tokyo for his last festival appearance in Japan.

Sakan began playing steel drum at the Görlizer park in Berlin, Tori Kudo of Maher Shalal Hash Baz then invited him to accompany the band. Immersing himself in the international DIY / noise / improv scene back in Berlin, he became active as an improviser, DJ and promoter, and has since worked with Sun Araw, Anders Lauge Meldgaard, Pekka Airaksinen, Günter Schickert, and Damo Suzuki.” – words from the label

The closest musical nodes to the kind of cerebral, introverted but undeniably gorgeous sounds in play is the polyrhythmic work of Don’t DJ. Blurring the line between acoustics and electronica, the kalimba melodics play out like a latter-day tribute to Steve Reich or Philip Glass, sharing their same unhurried yet insistent philosophies.

Intermolecular and Irradiation Loops aren’t so much an active listening experience – both slowly, surely, and deliberately await you to cross a threshold of consciousness – experiencing both from start to finish is the only real way to consume this record. The clips below are too brief to induce the meditative state that Sakan aims to provide. Stunning work.